Silver Fire
by Sara Darkotter
Summary: Snowflakes sequel. One-shot. Dresden thinks and waits as Maggie lies at the bottom of the cliff. And it comes down to whether she lives or die, and whether he administers death himself...


A one-shot sequel to Snowflakes. If you haven't read Snowflakes, I suggest you go read it, or you'll be completely and utterly lost. Reviews on both items are not required (I accept anonymous reviews!) but appreciated.

* * *

The soulgaze ended abruptly as she crashed to the ground.

I'd seen a young girl who'd known all too well what many her age took years to learn. The world was harsh, it was cold, it was never about you and you had to deal with it and shoulder your own damn burdens because everyone else was too busy with their own. But still, she held onto childhood illusions and smiled.

It was depressing, and now it was burned into my memory.

I took a deep breath, shuddering as I looked at Maggie lying limply in the snow far below. A yellowed, beaten up skull was nearby. I could see the mocking grin from here.

What do I do? Should I leave her there and get help? Should I go down and see if she's okay? What if she couldn't be moved?

I could have just called up Toot and his crew to watch her, but I'll be damned if I left my little girl alone in the woods with a bunch of fairies!

It was a sheer cliff, but rocky enough. I swung myself down and dug my shoes in, hands gripping the edge. Slowly, I leaned my weight down. My right foot slipped from the impossibly small rock it had anchored on. I yanked myself back up, swearing softly.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit," I repeated my mantra as I found a new foothold and began a slow climb down. The snow made going slick and I glanced up, the snow ending over my cliff section like I'd dropped a glass cylinder on myself. I watched a snowflake flutter too close and disappear. Satisfied, I once began hissing "Dammit" as I gripped a frozen chunk of a stone with my left hand.

The swearwords progressed from dammit onward, quickly going through shit, bullshit, fuck, motherfucker all the way to a few words considered unprintable even by sailors. I began clumping them together into long run-on rants that probably made even the rocks want to threaten to slit my throat. The friendliest started off "Fifty fathered son of a..." and went downcliff from there.

When I finally got to the ground, I had exhausted my entire vocabulary of swearwords, curses, threats and just general rants that I could think of and I probably would have made a marine cry. I looked up at two hundred feet of cliff.

"And fuck your mother too," I snarled at it. Then I hurried over to where Maggie lay. She was a dark-haired child beauty; I dreaded puberty just looking at her.

Except now I dreaded the thought she wouldn't live to that life change. Her large dark eyes were closed, hair a short tangled bob that spread in a black halo around her head. Something damp soaked into it, and it sure as hell wasn't water with that red shade. Her body was limp, strong angled jaw slack. Like a little broken angel.

"Well, Maggie, you sure know how to fall," I whispered. "Head first. You little idiot." I gently pulled her bangs from her eyelids. She needed a trim. It was a wonder Charity hadn't done that already.

Now I was down here, what did I do? I couldn't move her. She had a head injury, and it was possible she'd done something to her spine. But I couldn't leave her alone. An animal might come by, or worse. Any number of supernatural creatures could lurk here.

She might wake up. Then she could tell me herself if anything hurt. Or if anything didn't seem to be there. Two hundred feet was a long way to fall, even for a full-grown adult.

"_Children seem to be made of rubber...The things they just bounce back from..."_

"Rubber my ass, Charity." I fixed a glare at Mavra's skull. The empty eye sockets grinned back insanely. Gently, I picked it up-

And flung against the cliff, sending a bolt of magic after it. It shattered, the pieces coating in ice, then suddenly exploding into dust in bursts of heat. I was throwing around more magic then even I could spare at the moment, but it took the edge off my anger.

It was my fault. I shouldn't have let Maggie move from that snowbank. I shouldn't have let Mavra get between her and me. I should have grabbed Maggie the second she pitched over that edge. I should have done a spell, any spell, instead of letting that soulgaze happen.

I should have killed Mavra a long time ago.

I sat down next to my little girl with a sigh. "Your Buffy imitation needs work." Just keep talking. She might come round. The snow would freeze the head wound. Then it'd be a straight shot to...Hell, Butters, maybe. That guy could fix any injury, and I wouldn't have to explain to unbelieving hospital staff what happened.

Unless she never came round, which was much more likely with all the shock and stress her body had been through the last week. She'd be in a coma forever and her last sight would be the dark inner reaches of her father's soul. If that wasn't scarring, I didn't know what was.

Every time I Showed Up for her, things went wrong. Susan, her teacher, now this.

"I'm a horrible father," I whispered bitterly, smiling. "Just horrible."

I hadn't actually meant to Show Up for the Black Court attack, but I'd gotten a tip they were surrounding a group of children out in the middle of forest nowhere, and...

Well, just because I'm the Winter Knight doesn't mean I'm cold hearted.

I leaned back. The snow was thick enough here that it flattened into a chair-like indent. Just keep talking...

"I didn't realize who you were at first, a week back. You were just a shadowy figure that stood up to something she shouldn't have had to. You know, that was stupid enough that you could have died and the newspapers still would have called it heroic. Most kids would have thought of themselves or called for help if they could think-which your class did. After the ambulance took you guys, your class wouldn't stop talking about ashamed they felt they hadn't stood up with you. Took forever to make them shut up."

And by then the journalists were falling over themselves in glee, trying to get interviews with the heroine. But she didn't need to know that.

"And the next day three of them got a good talking to from the Chicago Police for trying to saw apart public property. You should have seen what they did to that tree. It was a mess of hacked up branches, the police found them pretending they were wizards. Except Matthew accidentally lit the tip of his branch on fire, so maybe it wasn't quite pretend..." I tilted my head back to look at the gray sky through the towering branches overhead. Snowflakes tumbled down towards me, making me slightly dizzy. "...I'm running out of things to talk about. Got any suggestions?"

Silence. Her lips were turning blue.

Oh. Right. Cold. And cold wasn't good for shock. I shrugged out of my coat, laying it over her. It had the effect of making her look even smaller, and more frail. Like...

My blood turned to ice. What if she was dying? What did I do then? Just let things run its course? Or end it myself? Ending it would end any suffering, but she was just a little girl.

"I already have your mother's blood on my hands," I whispered to my scarred palms. "I can't add yours."

I folded in on myself, rocking back and forth on my heels. She would get better. I'd call an ambulance or someone and things would be okay.

...And I'd grow hooves and be a centaur. Maggie was hurt, possibly dying. She was never going to be okay.

I grabbed a thigh bone, more of the final remains of Mavra, and flung it at the cliff wall. The brittle bone shattered as it connected, splinters flying. One hit me in the cheek, burying itself in the soft flesh. Growling, I gripped it, felt the edges of it with my tongue and yanked it out. It was smoother than I would have expected, and it came out without a snag, coated in red. Instantly, warmth slid down my cheek and flooded my mouth with a copper-salt taste. I pinned my sleeve to the wound, mentally counting to ten. Anger wouldn't help Maggie.

So I sat down again, gently stroking her forehead while pinning my cheek with my other hand. Good reason to wear black-it doesn't stain. I couldn't speak for a few minutes waiting for the wound to start to clot.

The silence was both a comfort and a terror. Maggie's rasping, pained breath became obvious in it, bringing to mind the idea that it could end any minute, but it wrapped around us like an old friend, a reminder that some things were constant.

A small, brown-furred shape scurried through the brush. A mouse.

Mouse! I nearly lunged forward. If Mouse came, he could guard her while I got help, or I could send Mouse to find someone!

But both plans involved him coming to me, and right now he was locked in my car, disguised to make it harder to see in all this snow...

"Mouse!" I called. Maybe he'd hear me. He'd known about other dangers before. "Mouse!"

No response, not that there was any to expect. We were deep in the woods, maybe a good mile. There were still enough leaves to absorb sound that the cliff didn't block.

"Dammit, Titania. Now would be a good time to get rid of those things!"

All my shouting had done was make my cheek hurt anew and recoat my mouth with blood. That, and attract the attention of every danger in its hearing distance. Which, for some supernatural beings, was a long distance.

"Fuck," I whispered, watching my breath fog. Then I looked at the snow on the ground and spat out a mouthful of blood.

I felt, rather than saw, her arrive. I stayed where I was, watching the cliff. The softest of sounds told me she was right behind me. A slim hand at the edges of my vision, reaching. I grabbed it at the wrist, a hair from Maggie's head. "No offense, my lady, but _back__off.__"_

I gave a glare, meeting her green eyes. Fairies have no souls, so there was nothing to worry about.

She gave a slight nod, gently removing my hand and backing away, still facing me.

Queen Mab looked like a man's dream, white hair and green eyes, flawless pale skin, her clothes straining gently over her curves.

I didn't care about them. She wasn't human. She was the Winter Queen. Cruel and dark and partially insane.

"Such an icy glare, Dresden. Is that any way to treat your queen?"

I'd recently been informed, thanks to a blunt Molly, that my glare had changed from regular fires-of-living-Hell that every person got when angry to cold-as-the-dead ghost eyes, right about the time I came back from a six month disappearance into Lake Michigan. Irony? Bite me.

"Don't touch the kid."

"Why would that be? She's going to die soon out here anyway."

"No she won't. Keep your paws off her. _Your__Majesty,__" _I added, with a dash of snark. I was not in a good mood.

"Her spine, Dresden. She's paralyzed. You'll see. You can't move her. It would be better to end it now."

"Fuck off. You're here to give me my next job, right? It can wait."

Mab tilted her head to look at me, a pose that would have lesser men (And probably women. She wasn't picky) at her feet. Then she disappeared.

"Don't believe a thing she said, Mags. You'll be fine." I stroked her forehead, ignoring the slight blue tinge still in her skin.

Time passed.

I wasn't aware of the hours going by until I looked up from watching my daughter. The thin shadows of cloud covered light stretched over the snow before me. I had a sudden idea about why parents dealt with kids, despite all the problems they listed with parenthood. There was something down to earth and just downright beautiful about a sleeping child. The world could fall down around you, and as long as your kid could still sleep with even breaths through the night, all would be okay, because the kid could sleep. All you had to do was stand guard and your hope would see you to tomorrow with innocent smiles.

Goddamn. I got soft in less than a day. And using metaphors. There was something wrong with me.

"You're going to get me killed, Mags," I told her, looking at fingers that would have been frostbitten on a regular person. Being Winter Knight had its perks. As it were, my fingers were red, pin-pricking with pain. I locked my hands under my armpits.

Watching the tree shadows briefly, I felt it beginning to creep across my neck. I knew that feeling.

Death was coming, slowly and surely. He was coming for my little girl.

I looked at her again. All was visible was her head. The rest of her was buried under my leather duster, somehow making her head look oddly disproportionate. If I tilted to my left, she just looked frail. Maggie was turning a strange, indescribable color in the fading lighting. Her blood was pulled to the important areas to keep alive, well past the red or blue stages. The shock of black hair against the snow also made that color look pale. A rattling, choking breath escaped her lips and I lurched, imagining it was her last. But no. The shadow of Death was still far, but still coming.

I stood, beginning to pace. A few feet to Maggie's left, a few to her right in a tiny oval of snow that was swiftly packed down. I examined my jeans and running shoes-don't ask why I was wearing them-as I did so.

Every breath seemed to echo now, heading directly to my ears.

There had to be something I could do. Something. There had to be a chance...

A wizard's Sight is a dangerous thing to use. It shows us the truth, the horrors of the world around us, and they stay forever in sparkling clarity.

But it could also show us little glimpses of the future, the most likely paths to happen in a short time-span.

The woods were alive with magic. It layered in colors, some dark, some good, all different spans of time. That made no sense to me, until I realized that it was magic attached to things. Anything-or one-could be buried out here. Throw in the snow I magically kick-started (But it's not my fault it was still going) and you've got magic frenzy.

In the corners of my eyes, I could see horribly grinning skulls, growing clearer by the second. They balanced on tree limbs and snow mounds, cemented in the cliff wall.

I looked at Maggie. Through the protective spells on my duster, I saw her, struggling against a skull to wake. It was trying to get into her chest, a second one digging at her lower spine. But she wanted to live. She hadn't given up. With just the right push...

I snapped my Sight shut, swaying. A little too long there...

Carefully, I lay down on the snowdrift again, doing my best to curl my body around hers protectively without causing her to shift. Death would have to rip her from my hands.

The cold soaked from the snow into my bones, reminding me I was only human. What I wouldn't give for a blanket. Not for the snow to be gone, since it saved Maggie's life, but something warm would have been nice.

"My liege!" a voice squeaked. I glanced at a small fairy, about six inches tall with silver dragonfly wings. A snowflake landed on purple hair.

"Hi Toot."

"What are you doing here? Who's that human? What-"

"Do me a favor and go find my car. Let Mouse out. Tell him to make like Lassie. I'll pay you later. Pizza in its usual place." I was still staring at the top of Maggie's head. I could see where the head wound had been, now frozen. At least the snow did that much.

Toot zoomed off. Bribed fairies work fast, in case they get more pizza for faster favors. Several seconds later, he returned. "Done, my liege! The dog ran off just like you wanted him to!"

"Let's hope he's fast as you," I whispered.

Maggie's breathing got shallower.

"So who's the girl?" Toot settled on my shoulder.

"Maggie."

"Who?"

"My daughter."

"She's cute."

"Touch her and I'll experiment to see if fairies drown."

"Not like that! I wouldn't sport with her anyway-"

I growled. I didn't need to look to know he'd moved a long distance away.

"What's wrong, Za-Lord?"

Since explaining parental instinct to Toot was pointless, I ignored him.

Come on, Lassie. Timmy fell down the well. Save him. And be fast; he's drowning too.

The shadow came closer, faster. She was losing the fight.

"No! Don't you dare die, Maggie!"

"She's going to _die?__"_ Toot-Toot's voice went up an octave on the last word. "And you're waiting on Mouse? Quick, come on! Magic her or something and lets go!"

"I can't. I don't know what's wrong."

"Yes you do! Mab told you, didn't she?"

I took a breath. "There could be other injuries. And besides. How am I supposed to keep her spine straight?"

It hit me then. Mouse wasn't going to make it. If he did, he'd only get one of my old friends, and they're no ambulance crew. I had no way to get her up the cliffside, never mind to a hospital in time.

Her number came up. She was going to die.

Tears tracked down my cheeks, freezing. My cheek stung as I locked my jaw, teeth creaking to keep back a sob.

"She's going to die here," I managed to choke out. "It's too late."

The sob tagged along with the words. I covered my face with my hands, crying for Maggie.

The pentacle weighed heavily on my neck.

I couldn't do anything for her, but at least she could hear her grandmother's voice. Biting my lower lip, tears still finding ways down my face, I unfastened it. Toot had to help. I managed to clip it around Maggie's throat by myself, though my hands shook. Then I flipped the pentacle, letting the ruby rest against her skin.

It was my mother's voice, telling us about the Way that could take us to Mount Rainer in Washington State. Even if it was just information and notes, her voice was a comfort. I submerged myself in it.

Mouse barked.

It had to be sunset. The woods were cast into deep shadows. Dusk. The dark things of the night were waking.

From the corner of my left eye, I could see a shadow. Death had arrived. I looked away, at the clifftop.

Mouse posed there, two hundred pounds of muscle and fur, next to...

Ebenezar. My mentor. And grandfather.

I'm not sure how he got down the cliff, but suddenly, he stood right in front of me, pale. "Am I too late?"

I shrugged, looking over Maggie's body.

Then he crouched, placing a hand at her neck to feel for a pulse. I watched the white wisps of hair around his head. He sighed. "Not quite yet. We c'n save her, if we're fast. Hoss!"

"Sir!" I said automatically.

His staff whacked my head as he handed it to me. "This is a two wizard job. Borrow this and find a way to keep 'er straight."

"But-"

"Don't need it for flight. You do, Hoss."

"Yes sir." I drew a circle around myself in the snow, barely remembering to will it closed.

The question was, how? I knew spells that could lock someone in a position, a body-bind, but it would cause her to move as it went into effect.

So I closed my mind and imagined. First, Maggie, lying down. Then a board under her, supporting. Then straps, over her arms and across her belly, around her legs.

I opened my eyes, whispered a bit of pseudo-Latin and broke the circle. It spilled out, the magic going to work.

And then Maggie, like a good little wizard, defended herself against foreign magic.

I flew backward into a tree fifty feet away.

"You okay, Za-Lord?"

Mouse gave a condoling look from his perch.

I slid to the ground, holding my head.

"Why are you smiling?" Toot asked. "Did you hit your head really hard?"

"Toot..." I hauled myself up, leaning on Ebenezar's staff. My smile turned into a grin. "I feel proud."

Toot looked confused as I limped back to Maggie. Thankfully, the spell hadn't undone. Ebenezar glanced at me, a white eyebrow raised, but a smile glinted in his eyes.

Back to serious, he muttered something to himself, shook up a canteen that made its own mysterious appearance and dripped a little of what was in it between Maggie's lips. Then he gently pulled my duster off her.

"Here, Hoss. Ain't going to be easy as it is."

I pulled on the leather, feeling its weight settle comfortably on my shoulders.

Flying with magic isn't easy when you're conscious. Maggie was nearly dead, so the one doing all the gravity convincing was us. Ebenezar drank part of whatever was in the canteen, then tossed it to me. I downed the rest of it, grimacing at the taste of old feathers.

Then to work.

I'm not sure how we got up the cliff, my memory blanked from all the magic that we needed to haul her up. But I definitely remembered the feeling of Death still hanging over us, and the sensation of a rope around my wrist leading to my little girl, though nothing was actually there. Later, I was told that I was talking the Maggie the entire time and swearing at Death like he could actually listen.

Up near the top, I slipped again. I remember it because I learned a Russian swearword.

I looked up as someone grabbed my wrist.

"Hi Sanya."

He nodded, then yanked me up, helping to settle Maggie.

"What...Are you doing here?"

"I felt I was needed here, so I came."

"Careful, that borders on religious."

Ebenezar shot us an odd look.

Sanya, like the last time I saw him, had a backboard from who the hell knows where. Only this time, it wasn't me being strapped into it.

Maggie strapped in, the shadow of Death backed off. Sanya and Ebenezar (There seemed to be a silent agreement that I wasn't strong enough for carrying duty) carefully began to inch down the trail with her. I walked beside them, watching. Mouse took the other side, Toot sitting on his back. It would comical, except for their serious faces mirroring our own.

"So did Mouse bring anybody else?" I finally asked as we neared the trailhead.

"Miss Murphy was there, I think she might have-Where did you get this backboard?" he asked Sanya.

"There was an accident involving four cars two miles down the road. I borrowed it."

There were people talking at the trailhead. Leaning on my car. An ambulance was waiting next to Ebenezar's truck. They looked ready to start down the trail.

"Here they are!"

"There's that man who was hanging around the crash scene!"

A policeman, one I vaguely recognized, marched up to Sanya. "You, sir, are under arrest for st-" He looked at Maggie. "What happened?"

"Icy trail," I said. "Put some damn railings down there."

He looked at me, up and down. "Dresden. How...nice...to see you. What do you know about this?"

"I know if you don't move I'm going to get arrested for assaulting an officer," I said calmly, looking down at him. He opened his mouth to speak, looked at Maggie again, and stepped aside wordlessly, allowing the ambulance crew to take over.

I was pretty sure there were still frozen tears on my cheeks. Murphy stood on my car bumper, reaching up to scrape them away.

The shadow was still there.

Toot settled on my shoulder, hiding behind my collar.

"Here," he whispered. Something tiny was passed to me. "For extra pizza, this can keep you from killing hospital machines."

I looked at the amulet, then nodded.

"Two extra, just for you, every Friday for three weeks," I whispered.

Toot shook his wings in agreement, then was gone.

Putting it in a jean pocket, I followed the crew.

"Sorry, man, but you can't come unless you're family."

Then he looked at me again. "You're Harry Dresden."

I shrugged.

He looked at Maggie. "You guys sure look alike," he muttered. Then he waved a hand. "Come on. You might have hypothermia. Since the kid doesn't, I'm thinking she borrowed your coat."

I stepped onboard.

The doors shut. I looked out the back windows as we drove. The sirens went off, and I winced, ignoring them. Apparently it was bad.

"It's amazing she's still alive. So what happened?"

"We were walking. My car broke down, so I got dragged down the trail. Near a cliff, the trail got icy, and there was this madman, or madwoman, one of the people that attacked her last week...Is she going to be okay?" I asked suddenly.

Caught off guard, he said "Probably not. Er...That is..."

I nodded, watching the road disappear behind us with the sunset. The snow along both sides of the asphalt caught the sunset where it broke through on the horizon. The snowfall would probably end by tomorrow.

But meanwhile, there was the spectacular sight of sunbeams turning the snow to gold.

Could I punch the guy with the sick sense of humor? Thanks.

"And let's see about you. How long were you all out there?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. But it sure wasn't near sunset."

"So a good couple hours then." The EMT whisked my duster away. "And yet you look fine. How the hell. And in short sleeves too."

I shrugged. "Dunno. Magic? She was borrowing my duster."

Rather then argue, I was checked over.

"How'd you get the cheek injury?"

"I...I'm not really sure, actually." I could vaguely remember jerking the splinter of bone from my cheek, but I was mostly focused on ignoring everything except the back window.

"You aren't sure?"

"I was worried about Maggie."

There was no sound from the EMT, but my cheek stung as he cleaned it.

"Hey, man?"

"What?"

"Whatever this was, it went through your cheek."

"Oh."

"It's going to need stitches."

"Okay."

Apparently there wasn't anything else wrong, because he taped gauze to my cheek and went back to Maggie.

I stayed in my little corner. The shadow was still following us, growing closer with the night.

Death, when seen by others, takes many forms. But none look cruel. Death the entity is not cruel. He's just the janitor.

In some forms, he's said to look like a person. Just a person, quietly watching.

To me, he looks like a soft gray shadow, one that gently wraps around the shoulders of the person doomed as it happens, like a shawl.

I saw it slide in.

One of the EMTs felt it. She had that military look to her, hair cut short and a fighter stance. She growled, standing over my little girl.

As she went dead silent. The machines stopped reporting life.

The gray shadow wrapped around her shoulders.

"Maggie!"

I wasn't sure of what happened next, but magic gathered as I lunged forward as the EMT picked up useless equipment. I pulled on soulfire, gathering it in a ball of silver, jamming into Maggie's chest.

White fire exploded behind my eyes. With no words attached to what I was doing, with no shield, the magic flowed right through me. I hissed, but let the magic work, or at least try.

Soulfire was a silvery magic, that was supposedly connected with the soul, also known as, to some, life. So logically, this could do something.

The shadow of Death slid away.

Silence in the ambulance.

Then...

A cough. Maggie gave a rattling cough, taking in air. The heartrate machine beeped...beeped...beeped...

I shakily backed up from my fencing stance.

The EMTs looked at her, then me.

"What did you do?"

"There was silver fire."

I struggled a minute to remember where I was. "I gave her a chance," I whispered.

The military EMT said something to our driver, who floored it more than he'd been already. I lurched backwards into the door, thankfully locked. Then I slid to the ambulance floor, blacking out.

I woke when one of them slid my arm over his shoulder.

"Wha...?"

"You're awake. Well..." He heaved me to my feet. "Come on. You'll need stitches."

I nodded, stepping down on wobbly legs to the tarmac.

"Maggie?" I asked.

"She's being seen to. Geez, what are you, her dad?"

I blinked hard, still not quite in the world. "Something like that, yeah."

I was guided in, noticing that it was again Cook County Hospital (Don't we have any other hospitals in Chicago?) and that Murphy was pulling up. Obviously, she had casually ignored the law in favor of making it here quickly.

I got to spend half an hour with a needle, thread and Novocain, getting stitches, then I was tossed out into the hallway, almost literally.

The lights were flickering and causing their usual problems, but none of the important hospital machinery (Anything hooked up to a living person) seemed to notice I was there. It took the edge off my stress.

I'd convinced Maggie's body to work, but that didn't mean she was going to live. She could be a soulless body for all I know, comatose and dead in all ways but one. She could die any minute, since all I'd done was give Death a surprise.

Murphy had to keep me from pacing a hole in the floor.

Of course, the second she got me to sit down, I was forced to notice.

Death and hospitals got along pretty well. I could feel it, the shadow sliding along the halls sending my hair on end. It was nervewracking, especially since I had no idea where Maggie was. I closed my eyes every time Death stopped to claim.

"You know, that woman across the waiting room has been flirting with you the last fifteen minutes," Murphy said, voice only a little cold. I shrugged, watching the wall.

"So what were you doing out there anyway?"

I licked my lips, swallowing the taste of copper. "Mavra was tailing us."

I didn't need to look at her to know she was shocked.

"She-But-You-"

"Maggie pulled her off the cliff and staked her."

"What?"

I nodded.

"We spend years trying to kill that bitch and failing and Maggie does her in...in...A week? Maybe less?"

I nodded again, smiling ever so slightly. "Yeah."

Murphy stood, sighing. "I'll go ask if there's news. Don't burn anything down, Harry."

I watched her small form step to the counter. I hadn't seen Murphy in a little less than a year and a half. She'd seen me through the few weeks it took to settle back into being back and alive and then...

Well, we just didn't contact each other. Didn't go out of our way to avoid each other, but we stayed distant, dropped contact and generally acted as if the other didn't exist.

Gotta tell ya, it hurts. Especially those times when I'd seen the Chicago Alliance do a really good job. It was because of them I found ways not to kill those that the Winter (Mainly Maeve and Mab) told me to, spiriting them away forever. I didn't want to force them to investigate me.

In other news, there's a pack of alley cats now living outside my new apartment.

"She just got brought into a ward," Murhy said quietly.

I nodded. "Let's go."

She blinked in shock. "But-"

I showed her the amulet. "I have this, for right now."

She gave me a wary nod as I stood, towering over the room.

The childrens ward was decorated in colors, all soft shades, with animal patterned curtains to separate beds.

A nurse was singing along to whatever-that-was on a digital music player. A few kids, the one still awake, were giggling, except a rather angry looking one glaring at the ward. It didn't quite work, because she also looked sad. I skirted the nurse, having already spotted Maggie.

Standing at the edge of her bed, I thought I was going to be sick, except I hadn't eaten anything since midnight.

Her skin was pale, a strange mix of gray and blue. An IV trailed into her upper arm, there was gauze over an eye, and a nurse was quietly whispering something to her, setting up a wheelchair.

"Hello," she said in a soft British accent. "Are you her parents?"

"He is," Murphy said. "I'm a friend of his."

The nurse nodded. "Poor girl. She's paralyzed."

And then I really was sick. Bile and ramen splattered over the floor at the foot of the bed.

"Harry?" Murphy placed a hand on my shoulder as I bent double, feeling my throat burn. I heaved, watching more ramen join the rest on the floor.

"Eww!"

"Hospital fears?" The nurse said kindly.

I shrugged.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, honey. It's hard enough to walk into this place. Seeing your own daughter like this...Well." She pressed a wax paper cup into my hand, pressing my shoulders to make me sit on the end of the bed. "Rinse your mouth. I'll get a janitor."

The short young British nurse walked off, tapping the shoulder of a boy trying to sneak out of his bed and shaking the nurse still singing.

Rather then look at the children around me, I looked at the ceiling. It was textured, just the sort of ceiling you can see shapes in if you squint hard enough while tired.

Maggie coughed behind me. I turned slightly. She was examining the ceiling too. Then she looked at me. Quietly, she said, "My Buffy imitation needs practice, huh? Do I get points for trying?"

I laughed. "Yes, Maggie, you do."

There was a window two feet away, the space tucked with the wheelchair and the nurse's seat. Quietly, the moonlight spilled onto the scene and into Maggie's dark eye.

In a flash of silver fire.

* * *

This is the happy ending. One of these days I'll sit down and write the sad ending(s).

Reviews welcome! I accept anonymous! Also, I'm writing a sequel (Multi-chapter) to this, which will called either All The Shades of Beauty or All The Shades of Love. It will be all about Maggie, dealing with that wheelchair. Keep an eye out, if you're interested!


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